• Bmc Health Serv Res · Nov 2014

    Room for improvement: noise on a maternity ward.

    • Safina Adatia, Susan Law, and Jeannie Haggerty.
    • Department of Family Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. safina.adatia@mail.mcgill.ca.
    • Bmc Health Serv Res. 2014 Nov 29; 14: 604.

    BackgroundFor mothers who have just given birth, the postpartum hospital stay is meant to promote an environment where resting, healing and bonding can take place. New mothers, however, face many interruptions throughout the day including multiple visitors and noise caused by medical equipment, corridor conversations and intercom announcements. This paper argues that disruptions and noise on a maternity ward are detrimental to the healing process for new mothers and their newborns and healthcare decision-makers need to act to improve the environment for these patients. This paper also provides recommendations on how to reduce the noise levels, or at least control the noise on a maternity ward, through the implementation of a daily quiet time.DiscussionHospital disruptions and its negative health effects in particular for new mothers and their children are illustrated in this paper. Hospital noise and interruptions act as a stressor for both new mothers and staff, and can lead to sleep deprivation and detrimental cardiovascular health effects. Sleep deprivation is associated with a number of negative mental and physical health consequences such as decreased immune function, vascular dysfunction and increased sympathetic cardiovascular modulation. Sleep deprivation can also increase the risk of postpartum mental health disorders in new mothers. Some efforts have been made to reduce the disruptions experienced by these patients within a hospital setting. For example, the introduction of a daily quiet time is one way of controlling noise levels and interruptions, however, these have mostly been implemented in intensive care units. Noise and disruptions are a significant problem during postpartum hospital stay. Healthcare institutions are responsible for patient-centered care; a quiet time intervention promises to contribute to a safe, healing environment in hospitals.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…